Kitchen Winter Garden

Growing my own salad and greens in the middle of the winter is a fun and practical hobby. Curtain herbs, like basil and parsley, are good to grow indoors during the winter. You can also sprout all year around but the best seasons for sprouting are the winter, spring and autumn. The summer tend to be a little to warm for sprouting since sprouts are quite sensitive to heat.

There are many different seeds to choose from when you start to sprout. One of my favourites is alfalfa which I have written about before, here. Alfalfa is a good to begin with since it grows easily and has a mild flavour. At the moment I have many things growing in my kitchen, beside alfalfa. My winter garden consists of two herbs, basil and cilantro, and five different types of sprouts such as lentils, alfalfa, broccoli, sunflower and radish. But if you are a beginner you might want to start with one or two different kinds and then increase after time. Most sprouts require water two times a day, in the morning and in the evening and that is viable for most of us.

Sprouts are very healthy but also very tasty. They can easily be added to any salad, juice or smoothie or on the side of a main meal. I like to prepare salads with two or three different sprouts in it. Together with some vegetables and salad dressing it is a great meal. The salad in the picture below was invented in the moment and was made from lentil sprouts and whatever greens that was left in the fridge.

I don’t have a recipe with any exact amounts but I will try to explain how it was made since it turned out very well. I used 2 handfuls of lentil sprouts, 1 small shredded carrot, 1 small piece of shredded white cabbage and 1 handful of pomegranate. I then drizzled a little olive oil over it together with a splash of Japanese soy sauce, a pinch of salt and finally juice and grated zest from half a lime. Give it all a good stir and it is done!

My favourite sprout, alfalfa.

Basil.

Lentil sprouts.

Radish and sunflower sprouts. I also have broccoli sprouts and cilantro but these seeds haven’t started to grow yet.